The ElemenTeens
by Logan Davis
Summary: Four teens each get an element power. These powers include the infamous wind, water, fire, and earth.


The ElemenTeens

By: Logan Davis

Four teens, four elements, one story

Started March 25, 2008

I was sitting at my desk, desperately waiting for the final seconds of my sophomore year at American Fork High School to end. I was pondering on what I was going to do this summer with my best friends, Lydia, Kyle, and Kade. I've always been obsessed with myself and my appearance, and with nothing better to do I pulled out my pocket-sized mirror and checked to see how I looked (I always have to bring my mirror, my iphone, and my lighter with me wherever I go. They're my necessities).

My glistening dark brown hair was spiked up in the front perfectly, and my deep, mysterious, green eyes were shining like hot, molten glass. I also have tan skin and enjoy basking in the sun. There has always been something about the sun that has intrigued me. Undoubtedly, it is its flames. My name? Logan Blackburn.

The last bell of the school year finally rang, and I awoke from my daydream, got out of my desk, slowly meandered through the halls, and eventually reached the flagpole outside where my friends and I meet after school. I was the first one there. A few moments later, one of my best friends showed up. She has shoulder length light-brown hair, beautiful green eyes, and an amazing white smile. We took her skydiving one time for her birthday and she's loved it ever since. Her name is Lydia Winsor.

After she joined me, another one of my best friends came. He isn't exactly what you would call normal, by any means. He has bright blue hair spiked up everywhere with white highlights. He is totally bizarre, but he's also cool. He has dark blue eyes, and his name is Kyle Hayell.

Finally, along came my last best friend. He is always wearing top dollar leather jackets and the type of glasses the pilots wear in Top Gun. He always has a smile on his face, waving to everybody he knows passing by. He has long, dirty blonde skater hair and jet black eyes. His favorite hobby is either picking up girls or rock climbing. I'm not exactly sure which his favorite is because he excels at both. He also enjoys football. His name is Kaden Rockwell. We call him Kade for short.

When Kade finally joined the group, he asked us if we were going to the huge end-of-school party that night. None of us had heard anything about the party.

"Come on! You guys don't know about the party _everybody_ is talking about?" he asked, "It's going to be so awesome that you won't believe your eyes! It's going to be a blast!"

"Yeah, Kade, anything with you really is a blast." Lydia said sarcastically.

"You and your jokes, Lydia." Kade said.

"So tell us more about the party!" I exclaimed.

"Well you see, it's starting at around 8:30 tonight, so that means 9:00 if you want to arrive 'on time'. It's going to be up in the canyon at the Gray Lake Campground. Oh, and not to mention all of the cheerleaders will be there!"

"How do _you_ know that?" asked Kyle.

"Because _I_ invited them." replied Kade smugly.

"But it's not even your party." I said.

"Doesn't mean I can't invite them, does it? I'm tight with all of the cheerleaders!" Kade said proudly.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot how _good_ you are with the ladies." Kyle said jokingly.

"But will there be any hot guys going?" asked Lydia.

"Of course there will. There's going to be cheerleaders there, so that automatically means that there will be..._hot_ guys going. Not to mention I'm going." I responded.

"Oh, yeah, how could I forget _you_, the love of my life?" Lydia said playfully as she sighed dramatically and put her hand on her chest.

"Wait, is there going to be any alcohol at this party?" I asked, "Because we're underage, and my mom won't let me go if it's there. You know how she is."

"You still listen to mommy?" Lydia said in a childish voice.

"You would, too, if your mom would ground you until you were ninety-five if she caught you within a mile of drugs or alcohol!" I shot back.

"I wouldn't go anyway because I'm against alcohol, and also because I can drive you guys around now, and I couldn't do that if I had that crap in my body." Kyle said, trying to calm the situation.

"Well anyway, Logan, to answer your question, there won't be any alcohol. It's against the law to have any at the place we're going to." Kade replied, "This is going to be a completely sober party. Trust me." He added reassuringly.

"So, since I'm the only one that can drive us, I guess I'll pick you guys up at around 8:20?" asked Kyle. We agreed.

"Yeah, showing up to a party at the time it starts just isn't...you know, the _cool_ way to show up." Kade said.

"Oh, reading _"The Dummy's Guide to Being Cool"_ again, Kade?" Lydia said playfully.

"Wow, come on, Lydia! You think I read that stupid book?" Kade said while laughing. Lydia kept looking at Kade with a serious face. Kade's smile quickly vanished. "Yeah I read it. I checked it out at the library." He admitted.

As the night passed on, it got closer to 8:20, so I decided I should put Guitar Hero away and get ready for the big party. After all, the cheerleaders were going to be there.

I got up and searched my mess of a closet for my favorite shirt. After searching for a while, I finally found it. It's a nice and thin, white button up shirt that has thin red lines streaking from top to bottom. I decided to wear it with the top buttons undone overtop a red undershirt. I grabbed my genuine, one-of-a-kind, white-shelled Hawaiian necklace that I bought from a street vendor in New York City and put it on.

Now it was time to find my favorite jeans. They're baggy and slightly tattered. I always have to wear my white belt with worn-out looking chrome studs whenever I wear anything that has belt loops, so I also had to find that. I finally found them in the mountain of clothes I have in my room and put them on. After that, I put on my red, white, and black hat. Then I put on my white shoes that have red accents. Last, but not least, I put my white Oakley sunglasses upside-down on the bill of my hat.

I heard Kyle honking, so I grabbed my shoes and headed out the door. As I was walking to Kyle's car, I could see they were talking. I got into the backseat.

"---long is this party supposed to go on for?" asked Lydia, "My mom says I have to be home by midnight."

"Oh, you still listen to _mommy?_" I said, trying to mimic the voice she had used earlier. She pretended not to hear me.

"That won't be a problem at all," replied Kade, "it should be all wrapped up by 11:30 at the latest."

"Did you guys grab the walkie-talkies?" I asked. We planned on bringing walkie-talkies with us to talk with during capture the flag since we'd be in the canyon and our cell phones wouldn't work.

"Of course, Logan." Kade said, waving them in the air.

"Always need to have your Oakley's, don't you?" Kyle asked as we were about to leave.

"Of course, especially when there's going to be cheerleaders! Oh, and it's pretty bright outside, too." I joked. Kyle slammed the gas pedal down and we were zooming off to the party.

------------------------------------

As we strolled up in Kyle's car, we could hear the laughing and loud music of the enticing party outside in the nice refreshing canyon air. "What a way to spend the first rockin' night of summa'!" hollered Kyle as he parked his car next to all of the other nice ones. His was by far the nicest car there.

There was a huge bonfire, a bunch of kids dancing by a car with a huge speaker system bumping music, a few football games, and groups of kids socializing everywhere.

"Come on, guys, I'll show you where the cheerleaders are." insisted Kade. Lydia rolled her eyes. Nobody was really doing anything so we followed him.

"Hey, Kade! What's happenin' with you lately, dude? You're still chillin' with all of the ladies, right?" shouted one of the defensive ends.

"Everyday, man, everyday!" Kade yelled back, "I've also got my best friends from my neighborhood that I'm going to be hangin' out with tonight." he added.

"Tight! What are their names?" the kid asked.

"This is Kyle, this is Lydia, and this is Logan." Kade replied casually, pointing to each of us as he said our names.

"Logan, I'm going to go use the restroom." Lydia whispered to me.

"Alright. If we go somewhere else and you can't find us, just use your walkie-talkie and I'll tell you where we are." I whispered back.

"You guys ready for a whole summer filled with football?" asked a big offensive lineman.

"Yeah, Kade, you should come play football with us this summer. We know this Underground Football League that is nation-wide, but it's not well known so only the best of the best come and play." Another football kid said.

"Not to mention its free." one of the wide receivers said.

"Yeah! That'd be sweet!" Kade said.

"Each team needs beautiful cheerleaders to support them. Know where you could find some?" asked one of the cheerleaders while batting her eyes.

"I'm not sure if there are any cheerleaders that fit _that_ description around _here_." the quarterback joked. The cheerleaders glared at him.

"And you wonder why none of _us_ like _you_." said another cheerleader.

"No, I'm pretty sure I know why." he replied.

"Oh, do you?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's because none of you have the brains to understand the humor in my jokes!" he said playfully. He was already running before the cheerleaders finally understood that he had just tried to insult them. When they finally made the connection, they chased after him.

"Well, not that this isn't fun or anything, but how 'bout we go get something to eat?" suggested Kyle, "I'm starving!"

"Okay, sounds good to me." I answered. We went over to the food table to grab some snacks and soda. When we got there, however, we noticed that somebody had replaced the soda with alcohol.

"Hey, Kade, I thought you said this was going to be a sober party." I said.

"My party was supposed to be a sober one," interrupted the party host, "but I guess some losers brought some, 'cause I sure didn't."

"But we're not allowed to be here then!" exclaimed Kyle, "We're all underage!"

"_No duh_...you think?" a girl snarled.

"Would you guys just shut up? If you hadn't been fighting this whole time, maybe you might have noticed those police cars flashing their ways up here!" a football player said as he pointed down the road. Everybody in the group turned to look at the stream of police cars coming up the mountain, and then ran towards the center of the party shouting as loud as they could.

"The cops are here! Run for it! The cops are here!" They yelled at the top of their lungs.

"Kade! Kyle! Follow me!" I yelled. We were running towards the mountain, looking for a way to escape, when Kade suddenly yelled, "Hey! Wait a minute, Logan! Where's Lydia?"

_She was right next to us the whole time_, I thought to myself, _until she..._

"The bathroom! The bathroom! She said she had to go to the bathroom!"

Right when I said that we slid our feet on the gravel and scrambled to regain our grip on the slippery surface. We had to reach her before the cops did!

"Hurry and check all of the bathrooms for her! She's got to be in one of them!" I yelled frantically. We searched every single one, but she was no where to be found.

"Hey! You there! What do you think you're doing?" a fat officer with a training K-9 unit yelled, "Get over here, or else!"

"Or else what? You're going to eat another doughnut? No! Please! Anything but that!" taunted Kade. As soon as he said that, the officer came charging over at his full speed; a brisk walk.

Still, he _did_ have a tazer, so we ran for it. "Lydia...Lydia, can you hear me?" I half-yelled into the walkie-talkie while we were running. I waited for her response. Nothing. "Lydia! Lyd---" I tripped and fell on a rock, slicing open my right arm. I screamed silently inside my head and waited for the explosion of pain to fade.

"Logan, are you okay?" asked Kyle.

"Yeah I'm alright. Did you see where my walkie-talkie went?

"Yeah, it's right here. Here you go." Kade said as he handed it back.

"Do you think we lost them?" asked Kyle.

"Maybe, but we still need to find Lydia! Try talking to her again, Logan, and hurry!" Kade replied urgently.

"Okay, okay...Lydia, can you hear me?" We just heard static.

"Dang it! Do you think something bad happened to her?" Kyle asked. Before Kade or I could answer, we heard Lydia's voice.

"Hello? Logan?" She finally replied.

"Yeah, I'm right here! Are you okay?" I quickly answered.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, where are you guys? I heard some people say that cops were here because of some alcohol, so I bolted over to some trees. Did you guys hear about that, too?" She asked quickly.

"Yeah. We went over to get some stuff to eat and there was alcohol at the table. Next thing we knew, there were cops showing up like crazy!" I told her, "Oh, and look for the cell phone lights waving back and forth up on the mountain, uh, east, I think, of the party. That's where we are."

"Okay, but I still don't see you guys...oh wait, yeah I see you now. And you're _west_ of the party, by the way. I'm on your left side coming up the mountain."

We turned and looked for her in the semi-darkness. "Okay I see you too. We'll start coming your way. Uh, sorry for the confusion." I replied. "Come on guys, she's over there." I told Kade and Kyle, "She's coming this way from over there, and we're going to meet her over---"

We suddenly heard a loud shriek coming from Lydia's direction.

"Lydia? Lydia!" I cried into the walkie-talkie. There wasn't a response. _Oh no, what possibly could have happened to her?_ Instantly, every worst possible outcome flashed before my eyes. We dashed over in her direction like lightning. We looked and looked, but there was no sign of her anywhere. "Lydia! Lydia, where are you?" We called, "Lydia, are you okay?"

"I'm down here! I fell into some kind of cavern. The hole was covered up with a grass covering; that's why I didn't notice the hole." Lydia said, slightly embarrassed.

"So, are you alright then?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess I'm alright, I just scraped up my arms, and I think I might have cut my leg. I can't really tell; there's not enough light down here to see very much."

"We thought something horrible had happened." Kyle told her.

"Hey! Guys! Some cops heard Lydia scream and they're heading up here! We've got to get out of here!" said Kade.

I had to quickly think of where to go. _Maybe there's enough room down in the cavern._ I said to myself. "Lydia, is there enough room down there for us, too?" I asked.

"Uh, there might be. I can't see anything down here. Just make sure you cover up the hole again so the cops won't see it." she replied. One by one, we went through the hole. I lifted up the grass covering and set it back over the hole. It fit perfectly.

A few moments later we heard the cops walk by. "Where did they go?" asked one of the cops to the other.

"I don't know...hey wait a minute...what's that over there?" They both crept over next to where we were...and then suddenly stopped. The suspense was like sitting in an electric chair that was about to be turned on.

"And they thought they could get away from us!" said one of the cops. "We've got you now, you stupid dogs, and there's no place to hide." The cops said.

_Why did they just call us dogs?_ I asked myself. ThenI heard someone whimpering. _Crap! Crap! We're dead! We're dead! Who's whining? Shutup! I'm too young to go to jail! _I thought to myself. Then I heard something barking up above us.

"Ouch! Stupid mutt!" he said.

"What happened?" the other cop asked.

"This stupid dog just bit me finger half off!" he replied. The other cop picked the other dog up and started heading back.

"Ha! We knew you couldn't get away from us! Let's get to the cars and put these puppies away!" he said. The cord to my electric chair had just been unplugged.

"Okay, they're gone." I said as I pulled out my lighter and flicked it on. The glow of the flames reflected against the glass beakers that sat on shelves and the few that lay broken on the floor.

"Whoa! This place is cool!" Kyle said.

"It looks like it was used pretty recently. It almost looks like an experiment lab." I said.

"Yeah, there are a lot of chemical beakers, and some are still full. I wonder what kind of experiments they were doing." said Lydia.

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it exploded." said Kade.

"And why do you say that?" asked Kyle, who almost laughed.

"Just guessing by the look of that body covered in blood, slightly buried beneath that pile of broken glass over there by that experiment container." Shocked by what he had said, we looked over at the horrific sight. I couldn't believe it. Lydia even screamed. We were stunned. There was a broken experiment container with dirty blue liquid in the bottom. Next to it was a body with multiple colors of slime oozing everywhere.

"What do you think happened?" I asked.

"I have no idea." replied Kade.

"It looks almost as if he was experimenting on something and it unleashed its ferocious and almighty power, broke through the glass, and then attacked the scientist, which led to him dying!" Kyle suggested.

"Technically, that _could _have happened, but I don't think that's _really_ what happened," Kade said.

"I agree with Kade." Lydia said.

"Oh, that's freaking gross!" Kyle said, pointing toward the ground where we were standing. The ooze was all over our shoes, and as we looked closer, it was all over our shirts and arms!

"Aw, man! My new shoes!" Kade said.

"Hey, guys, my cut is starting to hurt." I said, "Some of this goopy dirt crap stuff is starting to get inside it. I think we should get home and get cleaned up."

"Oh my gosh! What time is it? I totally lost track of time! All of the commotion at the party, and then the cops, and then---" Lydia started.

"Don't worry; it's only 11:28. You still have half an hour before you need to be home." I interrupted.

"So how are we going to get home with all of these cops hanging around?" asked Kyle.

"I think I know a way." I said, "Most of the cops arrested cars full of kids and then left. I think the only two left are with that training K-9 unit. So anyway, do you want to hear the plan?" They all spoke at once.

"Of course we want---"

"_No_, I thought we'd just sit here and---"

"Just hurry and tell us your freaking---"

"Alright! Alright! ALRIGHT!" I yelled. I quickly glanced over at the cops. They were examining all of the cars that were parked there, including Kyle's. "Okay, here's the plan: We could grab a couple of those beakers, and then go down next to the cops and throw them so they break; therefore creating a decoy."

"And then what? We just _run_ past them and hope they don't see us? _Hey Mr. Policeman, I hope you don't see me running past you. Hehehe! _Get real." said Lydia firmly.

"No. No, no, no, no, no! We don't just _run_ past them, of course not. We _drive_ past them." I answered.

"Oh, I get it." said Kade, "We _run_ past them, then get in the car and _drive_ past them. Seriously, Logan! What are you thinking? I agree with Lydia; this is ridiculous!"

"I never said his plan was---" Lydia started.

"Oh, come on! You can't say you weren't thinking it, Lydia!" Kade said.

"Yeah, Logan, and my _car_ is over there, right next to those stupid cops. There's no way we could all get in before they would notice." explained Kyle

"Yeah, I know, I know. I've got that part all figured out though, Kyle. Don't you remember that small engines class we had first semester?" I asked.

"Of course! How could I possibly forget the time when you put that lawn mower engine back together wrong, and then---" he started to say.

"Yeah, that story doesn't need to be told _again_, Kyle." I said nicely, but still getting to the point. "Remember when he showed us how to hot-wire cars if there was ever an emergency?"

"Oh yeah! And then _you_ tried, and suddenly, from out of nowhere, there was smoke and it started---."

"KYLE! Do you still remember how to hot-wire cars? I, well, you know, that class wasn't really my best---"

"Of course I do, but what are you trying to say?"

"See that police car right there?"

"No, I don't see the big, white car that has huge, bright lights flashing...wait a second...is that it right there?" Kyle asked.

"Yes. Good job, Kyle. But what we need you to do is---"

"Hold on. Let me get this straight. _You want me to hot-wire a police car?_ There's no way I'm going to hot-wire it! I'm not going to go steal a cop car! That's just nuts, Logan! NUTS!"

"Come on, I just need you to start it and drive a little ways down the road while we start your car. Then we will come pick you up." I said.

"No. There's no way. I'm not going to do that. We've got to find a different way to get home." Kyle said.

"Well what else do you want us to do? _Walk_ home? And besides, this _is_ an emergency, you know." Kade said.

"Well, Kyle's right, you know. We can't just go and _steal_ a car; especially a police car. No matter how you look at it, stealing is just wrong." Lydia said as if Kade and I were still children.

"But it wouldn't be stealing. It would be _borrowing_. Don't you see? We're going to leave it, not take it, remember?"

"Why can't I just take that car over there instead of taking the cop car?" Kyle asked.

"I knew you were going to ask that. Anyway, if we take a different car, they could chase us in their car. If we take their car, they can't chase us!" I explained.

"Well, okay. But only because of the situation. I'm not happy about it, but I guess I have to do it."

"Kyle, you don't really _have_ to steal the---" Lydia began.

"There's no other way that will get you home in time, and I can't just leave my car here." Kyle said, cutting her off.

Lydia sighed. "Oh, fine. But if I get caught, I swear I'll...I'll...d-do something mean to you guys."

_Like what? Look at us in a mean way?_ I thought.

"Alright, let's do this." Kade said.

We tried to get as much of the dirt and liquid stuff off of us that we could. After we cleaned up we headed out of the cavern.

"So how is our little scheme going to commence again? I want to make sure it will work." Lydia said.

"Well, we will slowly climb down the mountain with these beakers in our hands, and then we will throw them over there; creating a decoy. Then, after the cops go searching over to where the noise from the shattering beakers will be, Kyle will hot-wire the police car and drive like his life depends on it, because in all reality it does, and then the cops will hopefully run after him. Then, while they are chasing him, it will give us the opportunity we need to get inside of Kyle's car and drive down the road and pick him up, since he's not _stealing_ the cop car." I said, emphasizing the word 'stealing'.

"Do you have his keys?" Kade asked.

"No, I thought I would hot-wire his car, too," I said sarcastically, "Of course I have his keys."

"So what happens if your 'flawless' plan doesn't work?" Lydia asked.

"It will. Trust me." I said, "Are you guys ready?" I asked. They all were. "Alright. Let's go."

------------------------------------

We headed down to the place where the cars were parked. Kyle started creeping down to the cop car.

"Okay. On the count of three, we will throw the beakers over there." I said while pointing at an open view of some bushes. "One. Two. Three!" I said as we threw the beakers. They all landed perfectly at the designated spot, except for Lydia's, which went flying the wrong way and crashed through the windshield of a brand new corvette.

"Oh, crap!" Lydia said out loud, mostly to herself.

"What was that?" one of the cops asked.

"I don't know. It was probably just an animal or something. Don't worry about it." The other one replied, trying to sound casual.

"So much for your 'flawless' plan, Logan." Lydia muttered just loud enough for me to hear.

"Maybe if you would've thrown your beaker in the right direction!" Kade said.

"I swear I did! The wind must've blown it over or...or something!" She said.

"Hey, don't worry; we still have Kyle's part to distract them." I said, reassuring her.

Kyle almost had the car started when he suddenly heard someone say, "Hey! You there! What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh great, it's that fat cop again." Kyle whispered into the walkie-talkie. He was trying as hard as he could to get the car to start, but he had no luck.

"Dang it! What is wrong with this stupid car? There must be a security mechanism or something!" he told us.

"Get over here! Now!" shouted the fat policeman. Kyle grudgingly did so. "Don't worry, kid, I won't hurt you." the cop said as he slowly walked towards Kyle. "I'm just going to ask you a few questio---" suddenly, the policeman lunged for Kyle! Kyle thrust out his hands as a barrier so the policeman wouldn't grab him, but that wasn't exactly what had happened.

Right when Kyle thrust his hands toward the policeman, a wall of water blasted out from within his hands, plowing the officer down like a tsunami in New York City.

Kyle looked just as shocked as I felt. He hurried to his car before the other cop came. We followed after him and sped off into the night. Nobody said anything the entire trip.

When we finally arrived at Kyle's house, we decided we would stay and discuss the night's events until Lydia had to leave.

"Did you guys see what Kyle did?" Lydia asked.

"_No._" Kyle said sarcastically, "did something strange happen or something?"

"No, just the fact that water gushed out of your hands!" Lydia said.

"Yeah, that was crazy! It freaked me out! How do you think that happened?" I said.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure none of us was drinking, right? That might have affected the way we saw things a little bit" Kade said.

"Yeah, Kade, just a _little_ bit!" I said. We laughed.

"Seriously, guys, this is important!" Lydia said.

"Hey, guys, remember that science lab? Maybe the scientist was making a water creature, and the chemicals had water abilities that he was going to embed into the DNA." Kyle said.

"Yeah, maybe you got some of it in your bloodstream when we were hiding from the cops in that cavern full of goop." Lydia suggested.

"Well whatever you have, it's crazy." Kade said as he grabbed a bag of marshmallows.

"Do you guys think we could have imagined this?" I asked.

"I don't think so, Logan. That cop was soaking wet on the ground!" Lydia replied.

"Hey Logan, catch!" Kade said as he threw a marshmallow at me, catching me off guard.

"Whoa! Watch it!" I said as I put up my arms to block my face from the projectile. Right when I did that, a sheet of fire came from my hands and arms, creating a large flaming shield. The marshmallow bounced off and hit Kade in the face.

"Oh my helicopter! What is happening to us?" I said.

"I don't know, but you perfectly toasted my marshmallow!" Kade said.

"Try doing..._that_...again." Lydia suggested, very scared now. I swiftly threw up my hands in the same position. Nothing happened. I tried again. No sign of fire.

"Here, throw something at me and I'll try to make that fire shield. Maybe that will work." I said. Lydia quickly took the opportunity of throwing something at me and chucked a marshmallow at my face as hard as she could. I obviously wasn't ready.

"Well what do you know? It didn't work!" Lydia joked.

"Maybe it's because you didn't warn me! You just threw it at my face!" I said.

"Okay, let me try." Kyle said, "Here it comes!" he said as if he was talking to a child. Then he threw it to me. I threw up my hands into the same position as before. Suddenly, a sheet of fire emitted from my hands and arms, creating the same fiery shield. It toasted the marshmallow and it shot off and whacked Kade in the face.

"Yes! The victory of a perfectly toasted marshmallow." Kade said as he plopped it into his mouth.

"Okay, this is insane! This _can't_ be happening to you guys!" Lydia said, extremely scared now.

"Well, how do we explain what Logan just did?" Kyle asked, bringing up a good point.

"Maybe there was a different kind of chemical that got into Logan's bloodstream, therefore allowing him the ability to create fire instead of water. Hmmm...I wonder if either Kade or I have powers, too." Lydia said, determined to get to the bottom of this.

"Hey, wait minute, guys. Watch this. Throw a marshmallow at me; I want to see if I can make some sort of shield made of water." Kyle said.

"Uh, sure. Why not?" Kade said. Then he hurled a marshmallow at him. Kyle swiftly threw up his arms like I did earlier. Out of nowhere came this huge blanket of water protecting him from the marshmallow.

"Oh...my...gosh!" Kyle said, "That was totally wicked! It was definitely the chemicals that made us capable of this."

"Throw one at me!" Kade said, "I wonder if I have some sort of mysterious power." I took a marshmallow and threw it at Kade. He put his arms up into the shield position, and instantly a razor-sharp obsidian shield appeared and shredded the marshmallow into a million pieces.

"Whoa, now _that_ was cool!" Lydia said.

"Well yeah, but it's too bad I can't toast my _own_ marshmallows!" Kade joked.

"So if you're water, and you're fire, and you're...earth? Then...what am I?" Lydia asked.

"Let's find out." I said.

I threw a marshmallow at Lydia. She put her hands into the shield position. A mini-tornado that was the size of our own shields appeared. It sucked in the marshmallow.

"Now _that_ beats all of ours!" Kyle said.

"That was cool, but where did the marshmallow go?" Kade asked. We looked at each other.

"I don't know. Maybe it vanished and we will never see it again." I said.

"Or maybe she sucked out the calories from the marshmallow and converted it into energy for her super powers like they do in the movies." Kyle said. We stared at him. "What? It could happen!" he joked.

"Yeah...right." Kade said.

"Anyway, who really cares where the marshmallow went? I'm just glad my power is weather...or air...or wind...or whatever it is. But whatever we have, it has something to do with the four basic elements." Lydia said.

"And exactly _what_ are the four basic elements?" Kyle asked.

"Well, there is wind, fire, earth, and water. I'm guessing we each have a power in relation to each element." Lydia replied.

"Yeah, so there's Kyle, and your element is water, and then there's Kade, and your element is earth, and then there's you, Lydia, and your element is wind. So that leaves me, and I have fire. It makes perfect sense!" I said.

"Yeah, the fact that four teenagers accidentally fell into a hidden science lab, obtained _elemental_ _powers_, and can summon them at will makes _perfect_ sense." Kade said.

"So, should we just keep our secret between us?" Lydia asked.

"No, I thought that we should go on Oprah, and after we do that, we could talk to Dr. Phil about the problems we are having with the world rejecting us!" I said sarcastically. Lydia glared at me.

"Well I think that we should see if we can control other stuff, instead of only the, uh, shield thingy. Maybe an attack, like the one I accidentally did to that cop back there." Kyle said.

"Yeah! That was so sweet when you blasted him off of the ground!" Kade said.

"How 'bout we do it tomorrow? It's getting late and I need to get home." Lydia said.

"Okay. How 'bout we meet at my house at 11:30 tomorrow morning? I have some stuff that we can test our...powers on." I said.

"Wow. We really _do_ have powers, don't we?" Kade said.

"Yeah, it's pretty freaky." Lydia said.

"Well, I think our powers are pretty cool!" Kyle said, "It's what every kid imagines they had, and _we_ have it! Isn't that awesome?" he added.

"Just remember what that one guy in that one movie said about having great power." Lydia said.

"Oh yeah! When he's at that one place with that thing that was always like, you know..." Kade said.

"Yeah! That thing that always did that one thing?" Lydia asked.

"Yeah. I remember. That one guy said, 'With great power comes an even greater electric bill'. Best movie ever! Oh, and remember that one part when---" Kade started.

"OKAY! WE GET IT!" Kyle yelled.

"I'm not so sure I like these...these _powers_ we have. Its just so...well...it just seems like this is all fake." I said.

Kyle pointed a finger at me, and a low-powered jet of water came out and splashed my face.

"Well thanks for reminding me this isn't fake!" I said.

"I think I should start heading home. See you guys tomorrow!" Lydia said to us.

"I think I should go home, too. See ya, guys." Kade said.

"I might as well get going, too. See ya, dude." I said.

"See ya tomorrow!" Kyle said.

The next morning, I got up and had my favorite breakfast: A large bowl of chocolate cereal, loads of bacon, scrumptious hot chocolate, crunchy cinnamon flavored toast, and melt-in-your mouth strawberry Pop Tarts. Today was going to be a good day. After I ate, I crashed on my bed. I was almost asleep when I heard the doorbell ring.

I got up and checked to see how I looked. Good enough for the first day of summer. I answered the door. It was Kade.

"Dude, why are you here so early? We were meeting here at 11:30, and its 10:12! That's an hour early!" I said to him.

"Actually, it's an hour and eighteen minutes early, but anyway, you have _got_ to check this out! Let's go in your backyard so I can show you!" he said.

"What's in my backyard that is so important?" I asked him.

"The ground!" he exclaimed.

"But what's so import---"

"Just come with me and I'll show you!" he said, cutting me off. He dashed through my kitchen, slid open the back door, flung himself over the side of the porch, and went to the middle of my lawn.

"Dude, you're never going to believe this! Check this out. I've been practicing it all morning. I figured out how to control some of my power!" he said.

"Seriously? What can you do?" I asked.

"See that bucket over there in your garden?" Kade asked.

"Yeah, the one full of weeds that I took out of the garden and was supposed to throw away last week?" I asked.

"Um, I guess so. But watch what I can do to it." he said. He thrust his hands from his chest outward, pointing at the bucket of weeds. A fleet of razor sharp obsidian rocks emitted from his hands and pierced through the bucket, slicing the weeds into pieces.

"Holy crap! That was intense! How did you do that?" I asked.

"Well, when Kyle blasted that cop off of his feet, he just shoved his hands forward and water came out! So I tried shoving my hands forward, and obsidian shot out! But that isn't even the cool part." Kade said.

He raised his right hand. With his palm up, he concentrated on his hand. Then he focused on a section of the lawn. He slowly lifted the same hand. Suddenly, the piece of ground he was focused on rose up from out of the ground, while still being fully connected to the ground, sort of like a miniature mountain. He looked at me with a mysterious grin. Then he brought his hand back down and made the ground level out. He laughed.

"And for the grand finale, I present you with my best trick!" Kade said.

Facing skyward, he brought his hands up into the air, and then thrust them downward. The ground beneath him rose up and then divided into two so he was hovering in the air. "I can fly! Isn't this the _coolest_ thing that you've ever seen? I'm guessing there's some magnetic stuff or something in this specific chunk of rock, and its charge is opposite from the Earth's, so I can fly in the air!" he said while flying in circles around me.

"Now _that's_ cool!" I said, "Maybe I can fly too, but with fire. Think it would work?" before he could answer, I spoke again. "I'm going to try." I brought my hands up above my head, and then threw them down as hard as I could. Instantly, I felt something incredibly new. I felt stupid. Why? Well, because nothing happened! I was just standing there with my arms flexed and my hands at my side!

"Um...I don't think it worked." I said, embarrassed.

"Were you focused on flying?" Kade asked.

"Well...um...I..."

"Exactly. You have to be focused, or it won't work." he said, "Try it again, but this time try being more focused.

"Alright." I said. I brought my hands above my head, focusing on the ground beneath me. Then I threw them at the ground. Fire suddenly burst out of my hands and feet, lifting me up in the air. I was kind of unstable at first, but then I got used to it and was able to control myself.

"Dude! This is so sweet! We can fly!" I said, "And my clothes aren't catching fire either!"

"Whoa, that's sweet! How is that happening?" Kade asked.

"I don't know, but I think I heard the doorbell ring. Let's go." I said as I started flying over my house.

"Dude! Get down! This is a no-fly zone!" Kade said sternly. _Oh yeah, duh. _We floated down and eventually reached the ground. My flaming hands and feet extinguished and Kade's rock seeped back into the earth. We ran to see who was there. It was Lydia. We told her about what had just happened outside.

"No way! That's incredible! I wonder if I can do that, too!" she said. The doorbell rang again. It was Kyle. We told him about what had happened, too.

"Whoa! This really _is_ like the movies! Maybe I can fly using water." Kyle said.

"How 'bout we go out back and try?" I said.

"Okay. I want to see if I can too." Lydia said.

We went to the middle of the lawn. Kyle and Lydia stood by each other while Kade and I stood back and told them what to do. When Kyle tried, nothing happened, but when Lydia tried she levitated into the air.

"Now, just focus on isolating your body parts and moving up, down, forward, back, left, and right. Keep trying until you gain control." Kade told her.

"I think I got the hang of it now!" she said as she did a frontflip over us and landed.

"I'm still not even rising. How did you guys do it?" Kyle asked.

"Just focus on the ground beneath you, and then throw your hands down, as if you were pushing it away from you." I replied. He did so. An immense amount of steam abruptly emerged out of his hands and feet and he started flying! He focused on isolating his body parts and learned how to control himself. He flew back to the ground. The steam disappeared.

"That was tight!" Kyle said.

"Yeah, but do you remember us telling you about Kade and his obsidian attack? He totally shredded that bucket of weeds over there!" I said.

"Weren't you supposed to empty that bucket about a week ago?" asked Kyle.

"Yeah..." I said.

"Kade, how did you do that?" Lydia asked.

"I just did what Kyle did when he blasted the cop off his feet; I threw my hands forward as if I was shoving something, and razor-sharp obsidian rocks flew out of my hands and owned the bucket. It was sweet!" Kade said.

Lydia aimed at the bucket and pushed her hands forward. A blast of wind, and a marshmallow, shot out of her hands and disintegrated the bucket.

"Well I guess that answers the question as to where the marshmallow _really_ went." Lydia said.

I pushed out my hands at the shredded weeds and suddenly a giant ball of flame slammed out of my hands and the weeds burst into flame.

"Whoa! Watch it!" Kyle said as he put the fire out with a ball of water.

"Hey, I have an idea." I said.

"Well that's a first." Kade joked.

"Funny. _Real_ funny, Kade. Anyway...Lydia, try sucking in that marshmallow, and then shoot it up into the air so I can toast it." I said.

"Um, okay. I'll try it." she said. She sucked it in with her tornado shield. Then she pushed her hands up into the air, projecting the marshmallow. As it was flying through the air, I aimed at it, and then thrust my hands toward it. A ball of fire shot up and struck the marshmallow, and it fell down and hit the earth.

"That's what I'm talking about baby!" I said. Kade walked over to the marshmallow.

"Wow, you are really good at toasting marshmallows." he said to me. Kyle extinguished the flaming goop.

We decided to head inside for some lunch. While we were getting some food ready, the doorbell rang. "I got it." I said.

I opened the door. There was a black man, large in stature, wearing an expensive black suit and black sunglasses. He also had one of those nice black ear pieces with the twisted wire coming out of it and was carrying a large black suitcase with gold trims. It had the acronym ASH imprinted on it. "Is there a problem, sir?" I asked politely.

"Is there a Mr. Kyle Hayell living at this residence?" he asked in a deep, dark voice.

"Um, no, he doesn't live here, but he _is_ here right now. I'll go get him for you." I replied. I half-ran to the kitchen.

"Kyle, some dude is here for you. He's big and buff, so I'd hurry if I was you." I said quickly, slurring some words together. We followed him.

"Hello, I'm Kyle Hayell. Is something wrong, sir?" he asked as nice as possible.

"Are those your friends?" the stranger asked, indicating Lydia, Kyle, and I with a big and slightly deformed index finger

"Yeah. I mean, yes. Yes they are...sir." Kyle replied.

"Is that your car? That one right over there?" he asked, adjusting his head so he was facing Kyle's car.

"Um, yes, sir. Not to be rude, of course, but who are you anyway?" Kyle asked.

"That's not important right now. Have you ever let anyone else drive your car?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe once or twice?" Kyle said.

"Tell me...exactly where were you last night?" the stranger asked.

_Oh crap..._I said in my head. The stranger looked at me.

"I was at a party. Why do you ask?" Kyle said.

"Were these same three kids with you?"

"Yes. But why---"

"My name is Richard Floorez (pronounced Floor-EHZ). You can call me Floorez. I am head founder of the Academy for Super Heroes, also known as ASH. Don't worry; we're the good guys. We were informed about an incident that had happened up by Gray Lake Campground a few days ago. We were told that something inside of a hidden ASH laboratory had gone wrong, and the experiment had gone crazy and attacked the scientist."

"Told you." Kyle whispered to us.

Floorez cleared his throat. "We headed up there last night with some trained dogs to find where the cavern was. We never found it. Apparently, you guys did. When we saw Kyle blast officer Davis with water, we knew you had been in the cavern. Either that or you were just born as a freak. We are assuming both options are true. We put a GPS device on your car and wrote down your license plate number so we could find out more about you and where you lived.

"Anyway, the experiment broke free and escaped. We, as in ASH, sent trackers out to obtain the location of the experiment. We were informed this morning that they were close and almost had it, when disaster struck. The experiment realized that it was being tracked and it lead the trackers to a place where they couldn't get out. That's when it unleashed its power and killed the trackers. The people that relayed this message said they saw what had happened, but when they went down to retrieve the bodies, they found nothing but blood stains on the ground. Everybody we have at ASH is training specifically for the capture and retrieval of the experiment. Your powers would be extremely useful to us in doing this task.

"I'm trying to say that we need you guys to come to ASH and train, and hopefully bring back the experiment. I've got some fake summer camp applications for you and your parents to sign so they won't be worried. Sound like a deal?" he asked.

"I don't know about this." said Lydia. Floorez cleared his throat.

"Here's my badge." he boomed as he towered over her.

"Hey, uh, Florest---" Kade started to say.

"It's Floorez." Floorez said, "Don't disrespect me ever again." he said sternly, yet still somewhat nice.

"Oh, sorry." Kade said, "Hey, uh, _Floorez,_ could we go inside and discuss this with each other before we make a decision?"

"Of course. I'll just wait out here. It's alright." Floorez said.

"So we're going for sure, right?" I said.

"I'm not sure about this." Lydia said again.

"I really want to go! It could..._will_ be awesome! We can learn how to control our powers!" Kyle said.

"But wha---" Kade started.

"_But wait!_ There's more! There could be beautiful, uh, super_ girls!_"

"And what about Lyd---" I started.

"And for you, Lydia, there could be hot, buff, super_ men_ there. Not guys, oh no, no, no! _MEN!_ So what do you say? Anyone not want to go? Everyone does? That's wha---"

"But what about the UFL?" Kade interrupted.

"The UFL? What's that?" I asked.

"The Underground Football League, remember?" he said, "I really want to go. Don't you guys think it sounds cool?"

"Hmmm, let's look at this for a second." Kyle said as he unrolled an imaginary screen and grabbed an imaginary pointing stick out of thin air. He slashed the pointing stick to the left. "The extraordinary exhibit "A": ASH. Go have fun with your friends, learn how to use your super power, yes, _super power_, hook up with some super chicks. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Over here, on your right," he said as he swung the stick through the air, "is the horrific exhibit "B": The UFL. Go work your butt off in the blistering hot sun with equipment strapped to you, roll around on the ground with hot, sweaty guys, and then shower with them after your games and practices. Absolutely _disgusting_."

"Now you're making football look lame." Kade said.

"So you _did_ get the point! Hooray! So you're coming with us to ASH then, right?" Kyle said.

"Why would I go with someone that just made fun of the best sport ever?" Kade said, louder than necessary.

"Because we're a _team_, Kade!" I said sternly, "And because you can do it next summer!" There was a long pause. Everyone was glaring at each other.

"Fine! I'll go! Gosh!" Kade finally yelled.

"I'll go, too." Kyle said with a grin.

"Shutup." Kade barked back.

"Make me." Kyle said.

"Don't make me make you." Kade said.

"I'm in." I said, trying to ignore Kyle and Kade.

"I'm not sure my mom will let me." Lydia said.

"You still listen to mom---" I started.

"Logan! This is not the time to be joking around! I'm serious! She might not let me go!"

"Well, if she doesn't, we'll figure out a way to let you come." I said.

"Well, I guess I'll come, too." Lydia said.

We opened the front door. Floorez was still patiently waiting there for us.

"What is the decision you made?" he asked.

"We...we want to go." I said.

"Wonderful. Here are the applications for your 'Summer Camp'. Bring everything on the list provided and meet at the designated building Monday at 3:00 PM sharp. Do not, under any circumstance, be late, or you will suffer the immediate consequences." Floorez said, "see you there." he added as he melted into the concrete and disappeared.

"Whoa, I like _his_ power the most." Kade said.

"So, we're going to this ASH place in two days? That's crazy!" Lydia said.

"Yeah." I said.

"And we're just going there for fun?" Kade asked.

"No, we're going there just to help them get that experiment back. Apparently it turned evil and has powers like the kinds we have." Lydia said.

"He never said anything about the experiment having powers like ours." I said.

"Remember where we got our powers from? The place where the experiment was created. I'm pretty sure we have some of the same powers as him...it."

"Oh yeah." I said.

"Yeah, this whole ASH thing sounds interesting. I wonder how evil it really is." Kyle said.

"Well whatever it is, it's big, dangerous, and has a lot of power." Lydia said.

"Why do you say that?" Kade asked.

"Because Floorez said it was the thing that broke out of the experimentation container. Did you _not _see the mess in there?" I asked.

"Well, I'm going to go home now and convince my mom to let me go to 'summer camp'. See you guys on Monday." Lydia said as she hovered along the sidewalk.

"I think I better get going." said Kyle as he jumped into air and stayed there, the high-powered steam bursting from his body.

"I guess I'm leaving, too. See ya Logan." Kade said as he jumped onto his rockboard.

------------------------------------

Monday quickly came, and we met at my house with our bags at 2:55. Lydia was there, too.

"So she let you come?" I asked her.

"...No. Of course not." She said, "But like you said, 'You still listen to mommy?'. I'm old enough to make my own decisions. I'm coming whether she likes it or not." She said.

"Wow. I'm...impressed. And scared. Your mom is going to _freak_ when she finds out you did this! But until then, let's make the most of your short life!" Kyle said.

We decided to play basketball while we waited for Floorez. Whenever I shot the ball, Lydia would always make it blow over to the side just enough so that I wouldn't score. Floorez finally arrived via seeping up through the concrete.

"Hey, Floorez, what's up dog?" Kyle said. Floorez stared at him.

"Not much..._brotha_." he added slyly.

"We're all ready to go, Floorez, but exactly how are we going to get there?" I asked.

"Just grab hold of me, and we'll melt through the cement. We will come back up at ASH." he said, "oh yeah, and it might tingle just a little bit." We grabbed hold of his arms and melted through the cement. The sensation felt like the tingling you get when your foot falls asleep, only it was all over our body. _Well this isn't so bad_. I thought to myself. As we came out of the cement, I suddenly felt pain strike everywhere in my body. The pain left just as quickly as it came.

"Here we are. I'll show you where your rooms are. Follow me, stay close, and do not talk to the other students." Floorez said in his deep, dark, you-better-listen-to-me-or-I'll-kill-you-with-a-spork voice. While we were walking through the halls, we saw some of the other students.

"Hey Kade! Look at the blonde in the pink!" I said.

"Yeah, she's beautiful!" he replied.

"Too bad we can't talk to her." Kyle said angrily.

"Yeah, but he never said we couldn't _wave_ to her!" I said before waving to her. She looked at me, then ignored me and went about her business.

"Rejected!" Kade said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shutup you mofoe cake." I said playfully.

After walking for a while, we finally reached our rooms. The pillow and blanket on my bed were black with flames everywhere. They also had a fire emblem in the center.

"Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about, baby!" I said out loud to myself. I went over to the wardrobe to empty my suitcase full of clothes. When I opened it, there was a red super hero outfit with the same fire emblem on the chest that was on my bed and pillow. At first I wondered how it got in there, but then I realized it didn't matter and threw it on. After It was on and wrinkle-free, I ran over to Kyle's room next-door to show him. When I got there he already had his on. His was bright blue with a water emblem on the chest.

"These are so cool!" I said.

"Yeah! They match our elements!" he said back.

"Let's go find Lydia and Kade. They probably have theirs on, too." I said. We went to Kade's room. He didn't notice us come in. He already had his on and was flexing in front of the mirror.

"Watch out, Ladies. Kaden the rockstar has entered the building." he said as he flexed his muscles.

"Yeah, watch out, Ladies. You may become blind!" I joked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Kade said, "But check out _my_ outfit, its way cooler than _yours_."

His outfit was brown with an earth emblem on the chest.

"Yeah, these outfits are awesome!" Kyle said, "Let's go check out Lydia. I mean check out her outfit, not her, because it's not like...well...you know...let's just go, okay?" We laughed again.

Lydia's outfit was bright white and had an air emblem on the chest. She was looking in the mirror. We walked into her room.

"So you found yours, too?" I asked.

"Yeah, but does it make me look fat?" she asked.

"Don't even ask that question. I don't know why girls always ask guys that question, because if we say yes, then you say we are rude, and then you smack us. If we say no, then you say we're lying, and then you smack us. So no matter what we say, you feel bad and our face hurts." Kyle said.

"It's a lot more complicated than that." she said to us.

"So, since we're 'official' super heroes now, shouldn't we have a team name?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. How about the Teen Scene?" Kade proposed.

"Nah, that has lame written all over it. How about the Water Kid's Posse?" Kyle asked sarcastically as he waved his hand out in front of him.

"No way. How about the Element Teens?" Lydia suggested as she wrote it on a piece of paper.

"Yeah, the Element Teens. But wait, how about we shorten it so the "T" of Element and the "T" of Teens are merged together so it says the ElemenTeens?" I asked as I wrote it.

"Yeah, that's tight." Kade said.

Floorez came up through the floor. "The ElemenTeens, huh?" Floorez said, "You will begin your training in two hours. Meet at the combat base. See you there." he said as he seeped back into the cement.

"Man, that's getting annoying." Lydia said. Floorez seeped back up out of the ground. He looked at Lydia.

"I heard that." he said.

"Wait. Should we wear our costumes to the combat base?" I quickly asked.

"Of course. But they're not costumes; they're your ICE suits, which stands for: Individually Customized to your Element. See you in two hours." Floorez said to us.

------------------------------------

"So how 'bout we go out to the pool and practice using our powers?" Kyle asked.

"Sure, why not?'' Kade said. We got changed into our ICE swimsuits and met at the pool. Kyle was the first one there and was surfing in place, trying to impress the girls that were tanning. When he saw us coming he jumped off of the surfboard and it disappeared.

He made a throne of water and made it bring him over to us. I evaporated his "throne" with a quick blast of fire, and Kyle landed on his butt.

"Man I'm getting good at this stuff." Kyle said.

"Yeah, that was..._impressive?_" Lydia said sarcastically.

"Dang, everything here isn't flammable because it's all wet!" I said.

"Here you go." said Kade. He threw a sharp piece of obsidian at a tree and a piece of wood fell to the ground. I was about to go pick it up.

"I got it." Lydia said casually. She lifted the piece of wood up with the wind and sent it over to me. "Gotcha covered." said Lydia.

"Thanks. Could you shoot it really high into the air so I can practice shooting my darts? Pretty please?" I asked.

"Yeah, all of us know how much _you_ need to practice." Lydia said playfully. She blew it up into the air. I put my hands up as if there was an invisible bow in my hands. I pulled back my right hand as if pulling back the bow string, and let go. A flaming arrow burst out of nowhere, shot through the air, and totally missed. Lydia sent another piece into the air. I tried again and hit the piece of wood. Kyle quickly doused the flame with a water ball before it hit the ground. We continued practicing our different powers for another hour and a half.

"We should go get ready to go to the combat base now. We need to be there in our ICE suits in half an hour." Lydia said.

"Alright." I said.

We got out of the pool, went to our rooms, changed into our ICE suits, and then met in my room.

"You guys ready to go?" Kade asked.

"Wait, I forgot my...stuff...in my other pants. I never leave without them." I said. I ran to get my iphone, lighter, and mirror from my other pants.

"He's so weird." Lydia said. After I came back we flew to the combat base.

"Man, flying is so fun!" Kade said.

"Yeah, I love it! Especially since we are can fly around here without people being freaked out." I said.

"Yeah, and that blonde girl in the pink totally digs flying water boys." Kyle said.

"Ha. Don't make me laugh. She would totally rather have a flying fire guy than a water boy." I said playfully.

"Ouch. That one cut down deep. It hurts...right here." Kyle said, pointing to his heart.

"Right on time, fellas." Floorez said as he came up through the floor.

"So, what exactly are we going to be doing?" Lydia asked.

"You will be training in the main areas of concern. These main areas are: attack, agility, speed, and defense, in that order. There will be different scenarios for each. Remember, you can only take advantage of opportunities, not make them." Floorez said.

"So, that means we will be training our attacks first, right Floorez?" Kyle asked.

"Yes, that is correct." he replied, "let's go inside."

We walked through the giant doors that led into the Combat Base. He led us through twenty different hallways until we finally arrived at our training facility.

"You will be practicing inside here. This arena is specifically designed for you guys; the ElemenTeens. It has a small mountain, a lake, a field, and, of course, walls. It's pretty big and should supply you with enough space to move around. Your ICE suits were made with your elements in mind. Therefore, all four of them are fire, water, and rock proof.

"There will be targets that will not harm you. However, they will fight back when it's time for defensive training. Your primary objective for this course is to destroy all of them. Any questions?" Floorez asked. We shook our heads. "Good. To begin, adjust the dial to attack, and then press the green button next to the door, and the targets should appear. To end, just press the big red button. I will be watching from a vantage point. Your session will be filmed for future reference." he melted into the ground.

"Why is there _always_ a big red button?" Kyle asked.

"Well obviously because it's sweet." I replied.

"I think it's so we can find and press it easier. It would be bad if we couldn't stop the targets from trying to hurt us in the defensive round." Lydia said.

"Good point." I said.

"Well should we start now?" Kade asked, "I want to demolish some easy targets."

"You all ready?" Lydia asked.

"Yeah, let's kick some robo-butt." I replied. Everybody looked at me curiously. "I was, uh, I was just kidding, guys. Come on, would I say that and be serious?"

------------------------------------

"One, two, three!" Kade yelled as he pressed the green button. Suddenly, a bunch of human-like robots came out of the mountain, shooting lasers and throwing stuff at us. We hurried and put up our shields.

"Did you change the dial to attack mode?" Kyle yelled.

"Oh shoot I forgot!" Kade said. He hurried and pressed the big red button. The robots stopped and went back into the mountain.

"You have to stay focused!" Floorez said through the intercom, "Change the dial to attack mode!" Floorez said.

"Wow...that was...intense!" Lydia said between deep breaths.

"Sorry, guys." Kade said. He changed the dial to attack mode. "Okay, here we go." he said as he pressed the green button again. The robots came back out of the mountain. This time, they weren't attacking us.

"That's better." I said. Kade was the first one to attack the robots. He made a piece of the mountain break off and threw it up in the air so the robots would be focused on it. While it was in the air, he shot obsidian arrows at the robots. They noticed the arrows coming and dodged them. However, they forgot about the huge piece of earth up in the air and it landed on them. All of the robots were destroyed.

"Excellent job, Kade! Excellent job!" Floorez said through the intercom.

"Beat that, guys." Kade said as he strutted past us with a huge grin.

"Alright, I will." I promised. More robots came out of the mountain. I shot a bunch of flaming arrows at them. They tried dodging them. The robots were all successful except for one; he got hit in the face. I flew into the air showering them with fireballs. I destroyed a few other robots. Since they weren't fighting back, I figured I might as well have some fun. I quickly flew right up to one of the robots. I blasted him off his feet with a wave of fire. "Yeah, what now you walking piece of junk!" I said out loud. There was one more robot left. He looked at me, and then started running away! I aimed and fired an arrow of lava. It flew through the air perfectly and struck the back of his head. The robot fell dead to the ground.

"Well done, Logan, well done." Floorez said.

"My turn!" Kyle said. More Robots came out of the mountain. Kyle ran to the lake and dove into the water.

"This is going to be tight!" I said. Kyle was invisible in the water. He noticed something.

"Where is he? It's been almost a minute!" Lydia said. Suddenly, Kyle burst out of the water like a speeding dolphin, and threw razor-sharp pieces of ice at the robots. Next, he created a giant wave that crushed the robots. Then he fired razor-sharp ice arrows at them. He formed a big block of ice from out of the lake and surfed up onto it. After he was on top of it he tore it apart from the lake, flew over to the robots on top of it, and landed on them.

"Superb!" Floorez said.

"I guess it's my turn!" Lydia said as she flew towards the fleet of robots coming out of the mountain, dancing in patterns through the air..

She flew by them and sucked one up in her tornado shield. Then she flew past them and threw the robot back at them, knocking two of them over. Then she created an extremely powerful gust of wind and slammed them against the mountain. Then she created a huge wave and crushed them. After that, she blew a huge boulder on top of them. She pressed the big red button to stop the robots.

"Spectacular!" Floorez said, "You guys are naturals!"

"Well, the elements _are_ natural, you know." Kade said.

"Oh, shut up." Floorez said playfully, "You mean what I know...wait a second...what I meant to say was...oh just forget it will ya?" We started to laugh.

"Forget that? How could we forget that?" I said laughing, "That was hilarious!"

"Do you want me to kill you?" Floorez asked with a serious face.

"I was just kidding!" I quickly said.

"Oh yeah? Well...so was I." he said as his serious face turned into a smile, and then quickly flashed back into his normal rock hard expression. "Now you will be training in the agility scenario. In this session, you will have to dodge various projectiles, which _could_ kill you, while maneuvering through several obstacle courses. Sound good?" Floorez asked.

"Yeah, that's cool, but when you say projectiles that could kill us..." I said.

"Don't worry; you guys are doing extremely well for your first day." Floorez said, "Are you guys ready for the agility course?"

"Sure! Might as well get it over with, right?" Kade said.

"Alright. Change the dial to Agility and press the green button to begin. Remember, you can't use your powers in this scenario." Floorez said.

Lydia changed the dial to agility. "Who's first?" Lydia asked.

"I'll go first." said Kade.

"Okay. Be careful!" Lydia said as she pressed the green button. Kade walked toward the obstacle course that rose from the middle of the arena. Suddenly, huge sheets of bullet-proof glass closed around the three of us, creating a big shield. However, we could still access the arena buttons.

"Three, two, one, GO!" Floorez said through the PA. He was up in the spectator's box.

Kade jumped onto the rotating piece of wood overtop the flaming steel spikes. Then he jumped and grasped a hanging rope and swung over the lava to some huge swinging axes, all while dodging spears. He lost his balance and fell over, almost decapitating himself with one of the huge swinging axes.

_Whoa! Floorez was being serious when he said the obstacle course could harm us!_ I thought to myself.

He regained his nerves and rolled out of the way. He got up and waited for the perfect moment to jump past the axes and continue on to the acid pit. Suddenly, a spear came out of nowhere and struck his upper left leg! Kade fell down and yelled in agony.

"Turn it off! Turn it off, NOW!" Kade screamed. Lydia dashed to the big red button and slammed it off.

"Help me! It hurts like crazy! Aaaahhhh! Oh my gosh! Hurry!" Kade yelled frantically. Floorez came from the spectator's box and jumped out of the ground. He pulled out the spear. Kade screamed louder.

"Here, Lydia, take this mixture and rub it onto his wound." Floorez said, making the mixture appear out of thin air, "I'll try to calm him down.

"Rub it on? But Floorez, its right next to his---" Lydia started.

"Yeah, well, just do it, okay? Unless you would rather _not _do it and just let him sit there pain. Those spears can be fatal!"

"Well, I guess I---" Lydia started again.

"Exactly! Now take this rag (he also pulled this out of the air), dip it into that mixture, and rub it into his wound."

"Okay! Okay!" Lydia said as she rubbed Kade's upper leg. Even though she was looking away from Kade's leg, it looked like she was going to puke.

"What do you want _us_ to do, Floorez?" I asked.

"You two just shut up, stay calm, and don't panic! Everything will be alright, just hold on. I've got this under control." Floorez replied.

"You almost killed him!" Kyle said.

"I told you that you could get hurt!" Floorez snapped.

"So if the agility course is this harmful, what will the defensive course be like?" Lydia asked. All of us went silent (except for Kade, who was whimpering from the pain), looking at each other.

"You'll just have to find out later." Floorez said roughly, "Who's up next?"

"Not me!" I said.

"Not me either! I don't want to die!" said Kyle.

"Please, pick me! I don't want to keep putting _this_ stuff on _his_ stuff. It's grossing me out!" Lydia said.

"Okay. I'm going to bring Kade to the hospital. Hold on a second." Floorez said. He held onto Kade and seeped into the ground.

"Think he'll be okay?" I asked.

"I don't know, but that freaked me out! I hope he'll be alright." said Kyle.

"Yeah, his injury seemed pretty bad. My hands got a little too close to his...well, you know...for my comfort." Lydia said, "By the way, where did that spear come from?"

We looked all over the arena, searching for where it came from.

"I don't see any place it could have come from." I said.

"Me neither." Lydia said.

"Hey, I think I see where it came from!" Kyle said, "See that huge opening up there? Up by the top of the mountain?"

"No, I don't see it." I said.

"Yeah, I can't see it either." Lydia said.

"Here, follow me." Kyle said. He flew up to the top of the mountain and we followed him to where the cave was. As we got closer, it started to get bigger and bigger. It was pretty large. Suddenly, an arrow blasted out of the cave toward me! I instinctively brought my hands up to make my fire shield and melted the arrow.

"What the heck! What was that?" I said.

"Hey look! That's the person that shot the arrow! He's trying to get away! Get him!" Lydia said. We flew incredibly fast in pursuit.

"Almost...almost..." Kyle said, flying closer and closer. "Freeze!" He yelled as thrust out his hands and froze the enemy waist-down in his tracks.

"Why did you try to kill us?" I said.

"Get away from me, or you'll be sorry!" the squeaky voiced midget said to us.

"Oh yeah? Well you'll be fried if you don't answer us!" I said as I made a large, intimidating flame in both of my hands.

"Okay! Okay I'll talk, but only if you unfreeze me! I can't breathe!" he squeaked.

"Should I do it? I asked Lydia and Kyle.

"Uh...yeah, I guess so. I don't think it will run away now." Lydia said. I unfroze him.

"See ya, losers!" the creature said as it melted itself and was gone.

"Perfect! Just perfect! He got away!" Kyle said.

"Yeah, but I blew this off his wrist while he was melting away." Lydia said.

"What is it?" Kyle and I asked in unison.

"Looks like the type of wristband you get when you go to the hospital. The one with your I.D. and all of your other info, you know?" Lydia replied.

"What does it say?" I asked.

"I'm trying to figure that part out...I just can't read this. It looks like some foreign symbols or something. Want to check it out?" she asked me.

"Sure." I said, taking the wristband from Lydia, "Oh, these are a bunch of scientific symbols. I wonder where that..._thing_...got it from."

"Let's head back to the arena. Floorez is probably waiting for us." Kyle said. We flew back down to the base of the mountain.

"Floorez _still_ isn't back? Wow, Kade must be really hurt." Lydia said.

"So, why do you think that thing was trying to kill us?" I asked.

"I don't know, but was scary." Kyle said.

Floorez came out of the ground. "Sorry I took so long; I was waiting for the Nurse. Kade will be alright. The accident didn't injure any vital organs."

"That's good." I said.

"Lydia, I believe it is your turn." Floorez said.

"Yeah, I guess so. You guys ready?" Lydia asked half-heartedly.

"Yeah, but the _real_ question is: Are _you_ ready, Lydia?" Kyle asked in a deep announcer-type voice.

"I don't know. Let's find out." she said. Floorez fused back into the ground; he was now in the spectator's box.

Lydia pressed the green button, and the sheets of glass encompassed us again.

"Three, two, one, go!" Floorez said.

She jumped onto the rotating piece of wood overtop the flaming steel spikes. Then she jumped and grasped a hanging rope and swung over the lava to some huge swinging axes, all while dodging the spears. She jumped past the axes and continued on to the acid pit. She got a running start, and leaped across as far as she could. She grabbed the ledge with her hands, but then her hands started to slip! She noticed a vine on the side of the acid pit. Would it hold? She hoped so.

She jumped towards the vine with all her heart, praying it would hold. She clung onto the thick vine. Astonishingly, it held. She was relieved. However, the vine suddenly slipped! She fell fifteen feet and was dangling a mere six inches above the acid when the vine snagged on something again.

_Holy crap_. I thought to myself.

Whoever was shooting the spears and arrows noticed her distress and started shooting right at her. The arrows were barely missing her and one whizzed right past her head and struck the dirt wall above her hand. I saw Lydia attempt one last thing. She grabbed one arrow to see if it would hold. It did. She pulled harder. It still held. Another arrow came whooshing by and struck right above her other hand. She grabbed onto it. She pulled the right arrow out of the side of the pit, pulled herself up with her left arm, and stuck the arrow in her right hand back into the side of the pit so she was climbing. She continued climbing like this until she reached the top.

As soon as she reached the top, a spear whizzed by her head again. She quickly ran atop the hot coals and jumped onto the monkey bars that were above some ferocious animals I've never seen before. She was swinging across perfectly fine and reached the end. She jumped off and landed. When she landed the earth beneath her, however, it broke off into the pit, and she was dangling once again; but this time she was above the wild beasts. She tried to pull herself up. She was halfway there when a bear-like animal jumped up and bit the edge of her pants! Lydia screamed. The bear was about to eat her alive!

Another creature that looked like a mix between a tiger and a small elephant was hungry, too, so it shoved the bear away and tried to get Lydia. She kicked the other creature's nose and pulled herself up the side of the pit. She climbed over the rock wall and repelled down the other side with ease. She had finished the course, so I pushed the big red button.

"Congratulations on finishing!" Floorez said through the PA as Lydia joined us.

"Man those beasts almost had you!" Kyle said.

"I know! I was so scared!" Lydia replied.

"Yeah, I would have been depressed for the rest of my life if you would have died." I said.

"Oh and why is that?" Lydia asked with a smile.

"Oh, well, you know, just because you're my friend, that's all." I said, trying not to blush. I have always liked Lydia, but I'll never admit it to anyone.

Kyle and I finished the obstacle course with no harm dealt to us. "Great job guys! How 'bout we call it a day and go check on Kade at the hospital?" Floorez asked. We agreed.

Kade was asleep when we got there, and looked a lot better than he did at the Combat Base.

"He should be alright. The wound wasn't that deep." The nurse said.

"That's good. We wouldn't be able to capture the evil experiment thing without Kade's help." Lydia said.

"What evil exper---" The nurse started to say.

"Nothing." Floorez quickly interrupted. Floorez's deep, booming voice woke up Kade.

"Hey...guys..." Kade whispered, still half asleep.

"Hey," Kyle said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Kade said, "But I'm not sure my family is."

"Why? Did something happen back at your house?" Kyle asked.

"No, not _that_ family...my _future_ family..." Kade gestured, trying to smile, but winced from the pain.

"Oh, gotcha." Kyle said, slightly embarrassed for asking that question.

"Kade, does it hurt?" Lydia asked. We looked at her as if she was crazy.

"_No_, not at all! In fact, it kind of tickles!" Kade said very sarcastically.

"I'm so sorry! I should have put that...stuff...on you sooner. It's entirely my fault!" Lydia said.

"Hey, don't worry about it, I'm fine."

"Good thing you're _'Like a Rock'_." I said.

"Ha-ha, very funny." Kade said. Changing the subject, he said, "I wonder where that spear thing came from. All the other ones weren't close to me at all. It was as if somebody...or some _thing_...had purposely tried to hurt me, you know? I don't know about you guys, but I think it has something to do with the evil experiment." Kade said.

"Yeah, when Floorez took you to the hospital, we found a creature that might have been---" I started.

"I don't think so. We have access to its very location using a GPS device that was embedded under its skin; the scientist put it in before testing on it as to be prepared for the worst case scenario. Good thing he did. The experiment is very far from here." Floorez interrupted.

"Exactly how far?" Kyle asked.

"_Very_. Don't worry about it." Floorez said, "I think you guys should get to bed. You can stay up for however long you want, though.

"Can I go, too? My, uh, sore_,_ feels fine." Kade said.

"Try walking first. If you can walk normally, then you can go." The nurse said. Kade stood up and immediately screamed.

"What's wrong!? Does it hurt!? What happened!?" The nurse frantically asked. Kade slowly started laughing.

"Man! I totally tricked you guys! Hahaha! Who's a winner? Kaden is! I'm fine! It doesn't hurt at all!" Kade said.

"You scared us, Kade!" Lydia said.

"That was pretty much the point." he said.

"Alright, get out of here and go have some fun." Floorez said.

------------------------------------

We changed into our ICE swimsuits and got into the outdoor hot tub. Kyle made a little surfer out of water and made it surf on the waves.

"That's so awesome!" said Lydia.

"Oh, yeah, I...er...I practice a lot in the tub..." Kyle admitted.

"Dang it!" I said.

"What?" Kade asked.

"The jets turned off." I replied.

"Not to worry." Lydia said.

Suddenly, the jets turned on.

"Whoa! How did you do that?" Kade asked.

"I just made tons of bubbles using my hands. It's pretty cool." Lydia said.

"Speaking of cool, this hot tub isn't that hot anymore." Kade said.

"I can fix that." I said as I used my fire underwater. The flames were so hot that it turned the water right next to my hands to steam and warmed up the hot tub.

"Dude, this feels a lot better. Thanks Logan." said Kyle.

"Don't mention it." I said.

"Okay, I guess I'll---" Kyle started.

"No, really. Don't ever mention it. EVER." I said again.

"Let's get into the pool now, okay?" Lydia suggested. We agreed and hopped in.

"Whoa! Watch out!" Kyle said playfully as he splashed us while riding on his surfboard, "Gotcha!"

Lydia created a big wave and knocked Kyle over. We continued playing various pool games for another two hours or so.

"Let's get to bed. I'm tired, and we have the defensive course tomorrow." Kade said.

"I'm getting tired, too. I'm calling it a night." Kyle said.

"Me too." Lydia and I said at the same time.

------------------------------------

Morning quickly came, and we went to the mess hall for breakfast. After we had eaten, we stuffed our pockets with the extra candy they had and then went to the combat base in our ICE suits for the defensive course.

"I'm so glad we can use our powers this round!" Kade said, "No more injuries for me!"

"Yeah, and if you _do _get hurt, I hope it's not where it was last time! That was _so_ disgusting." Lydia said.

"Oh come on, Lydia, you know you liked it." Kyle said.

"Oh shut up. Don't even start." she quickly said.

"Good morning. I'm guessing you had a good night?" Floorez asked.

"Yeah, it was fun." Lydia said.

"As you already know, you will be training in the defensive course today." Floorez said, "There will be robots attacking you with laser guns, just like the time when you accidentally started the defensive round yesterday. Don't worry; the laser guns can't hurt you. Your objective is do deflect the lasers and destroy the robots. Easy enough, right? Well it gets easier. You guys will be allowed to work as a group." he said before he melted into the ground.

"You know the drill. Change it to defense and press the green button to begin." Floorez said from the spectator's box. Lydia did so. The robots came out of the mountain, firing their laser guns at us. There was one particular robot that seemed to be more aggressive than the rest, and was also a different color. He was leading the fleet of robots.

We put up our shields to block the lasers. Lydia sucked up the lasers in her tornado shield and fired them back at the robots.

"So what's the plan?" Kade yelled.

"Do you see the robot in the very front? The huge red one that seems to be leading them?" I asked.

"Yeah, I see him." Lydia said.

"Are we going to group together and kill him first?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, that's exactly what we're going to do." I replied. We dashed like lightning to hide behind a huge boulder.

"Okay, when I say go, Kade and I will distract him. While we are doing that, I want you, Kyle, to freeze him. Then we will all work together and finish him off. Ready, set, go!" I said.

"I flew as fast as I could, firing balls of fire at the huge robot. Kade create a huge swarm of obsidian rocks and shot them at the robot. The robot was facing the other direction now, and it was Kyle's only chance. He surfed up right behind the robot. Right before Kyle was going to freeze him, the robot noticed him and punched him in the chest. Kyle got knocked back about twenty feet and landed on the ground. Lydia and Kade kept fighting the robot while I helped Kade.

"Are you alright?" I asked Kyle.

"I'm not sure. All I know is that my chest is throbbing with pain." he replied.

"Okay. Hang tight while I go kick his metal butt!" I said. I turned my hand into magma and shoved it into the back of the robot leader while he was facing the other way. It died instantly.

"One down, about one hundred more to go!" Kade said.

"Yeah, _only_ one hundred left." Lydia said positively.

"I'll take the left side. Lydia, you take the center. That leaves the right side to you, Kade." I said.

I turned myself into lava and flew into the robots. I was literally a flying volcano. Lydia created a giant blade of wind and killed some robots. Kade turned himself into a giant obsidian drill and drilled into the ground. Then he shot out of the ground and threw obsidian Chinese stars and hit the robots, obviously killing them. I shot fireballs at some more robots, and then fired flaming arrows at them. To finish off the robots on my side, I created a giant fireball blast and killed all of them. Lydia was almost done, too. She created a tornado and sucked them up into the air. Then she slammed them down into the ground. Kade created a razor-sharp obsidian scimitar and sliced off all of the robots arms. Then he made a sling and flung sharp rocks at their heads to kill them. We were finished with the defensive round. We ran to help Kyle.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." Kyle replied.

"I am impressed with how well you guys performed in this round!" Floorez said, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Since you are done with your training, you can start to get to know the other students. Let's head to the mess hall for some lunch."

------------------------------------

After we sat down with our food, I saw the same blonde girl that I saw right when we arrived at ASH.

"Dude, I just fell in love." I said to Kyle and Kade.

"Oh really? Did love break when you fell on it?" Lydia joked. We laughed.

"So are you just going to sit here or are you going to go talk to her?" Kade asked.

"Yeah, you have to go talk to her." Kyle added.

"But what if she already has a boyfriend? I bet she already has one. Oh well. Who's hungry?" I said.

"Logan, just go talk to her. She might not have a boyfriend, and she might even like _you_!" Lydia said.

"Well I don't even know her anyway. I just think she's pretty. I'm not going." I said.

"I'll give you a dollar." Kyle said.

"Two dollars." I negotiated.

"Alright, two dollars." Kyle replied.

"Okay, I'll go." I said, trying to sound confident.

As I started walking over to her, another student bumped me.

"Sorry." I said.

"You were going to talk to her, weren't you?" he asked nicely.

"Who?" I asked, trying to sound confused.

"Don't even try to sound confused. I guess you're new here, aren't you? The name's Budd. Taylor Budd." he said.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Logan, and I'm sixteen. How old are you?" I asked.

"I'm eighteen. Just so you know, I can read minds. See that girl sitting over there? The one that you like?" he asked.

"Yeah, but how did you know---"

"I can read minds, remember? You don't know her name yet, either." he said. It wasn't a question.

"Well, not yet." I replied.

"Her name is Sarah." he said.

"How do you know her?" I asked.

"Well, her last name is also Budd, if you know what I mean." he said.

_Well this is weird_. I thought to myself.

"Yeah, maybe just a little weird, but don't worry about it. A lot of kids here like her."

_Great, I knew I didn't have a chance_. I said inside my head.

"Hey, don't think that! You seem to be pretty cool."

"Thanks, I guess."

"So you want me to introduce you to her? I figured it would be the easiest way to get to know her without it being awkward."

"Thanks. So, uh, it's okay if I like your, um, sister then?" I asked.

"Hey man, it's alright. Maybe we could eventually be related someday...I'm just kidding."

"Yeah, I was about to say!" I said while laughing.

"Don't worry, I already knew what you were about to say." Taylor said. We laughed again. We walked over to Sarah's table.

"Hey, Sarah." Taylor said.

"Oh, hey. What do you need _this_ time?" she asked, sounding annoyed.

"Nothing..._this_ time. Actually, I was just seeing how you were doing." Taylor replied.

"Well, since you _always_ read my mind, I thought you would already know. Anyway, I'm doing good, except for the fact that my food is cold. Hey, wait a minute," she said, talking to me this time, "aren't you that new kid that waved at me?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah, that was me." I said, slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, cool. Sorry I didn't wave back; I was in the middle of a test and I would've got in trouble for 'cheating', but here you go anyway." she said while giving me a tiny wave.

"So you're Taylor's sister?" I asked, trying to start up another conversation.

"Unfortunately," she said, glancing over at Taylor to give him a dirty look. "Just kidding, he's..._cool_. So what's your name?" she asked.

"My name's Logan Blackburn and I'm sixteen, by the way. And how old are you?" I asked.

"Oh, I just _barely_ turned fifteen like last week! So, if you don't mind me asking, because some of the kids here actually do, what's _your_ power? Just curious, of course." she asked.

"Oh, I am all about fire. I can create it, manipulate it, and I am also fire resistant." I said, trying to sound cool, "Watch this." I spun around dramatically, waved my arms in a creative pattern, and gently heated up her food with a small flame.

"That's awesome! Thanks!" she said.

"And for your birthday..." I said while making a cake out of fire in mid-air. I made the main part of the cake with green flames, made the decoration frosting with white and yellow flames, and spelled 'Happy 15th Birthday Sarah' in the middle with blue flames. Around the edges were white candles with regular yellow flames on the top of them.

"Go ahead, blow out the candles!" I said enthusiastically.

"Oh...my...gosh! That is the coolest thing I've ever seen! Let me take a picture real fast!" she said as she pulled her iphone out of her pocket and took a picture of my fire cake.

"Thanks so much!" she said and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I almost fainted. She blew out the candles (and the cake, on accident).

"Hey, I have an iphone, too!" I said.

"Sweet! I love these things!" she said, "hey, could I get your number sometime?"

"Is right now a good sometime?" I asked, eager to get her number.

"Um, sure! How 'bout I just take your phone, put in my number, and vice versa?"

"Alright." I said. We exchanged phones. Her phone was as bedazzled as a phone could get. She just stared at my phone while I put my number in her phone.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Hold on, I'm almost done." she said.

_What is she doing to my phone?_ I wondered.

_She's obviously putting her number in, Logan._ A voice in my head replied.

_What the---? Did I just have a conversation with myself?_ I asked inside my head.

_No, you didn't just talk to yourself._ The voice said again.

_What _are_ you?_ I asked.

_A magical spirit guardian that has been sent to protec---_

Suddenly, Taylor started laughing hysterically.

_Was that _you? I thought in my head.

Taylor nodded, while still rolling on the floor, laughing out loud.

"Did Taylor just talk to you in your mind, Logan?" Sarah asked with a smile. I must have had a very puzzled expression on my face.

"Yeah, it was really freaking me out! I thought he only said he could read minds!" I said.

"Yeah, he told you the truth, just not the whole truth."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, he _can_ read minds, but he can also talk to you in your mind."

"So, we can basically communicate telepathically if he's reading my mind for the response?" I asked.

"Exactly. We found this out when we were very little. We didn't tell anyone, of course, because we would have had to go to some place for people that are insane, you know? So eventually, throughout the years, Taylor taught me how to read his mind, and because of that, we learned how to talk to each other telepathically. Nobody was ever suspicious, and we thought we would never get caught.

"But one day, we went to our aunt's wedding, and she was getting married to this big black guy. He looked mean and scary to us, since we were still little. I started to telepathically make jokes with Taylor about the groom being so tall. Finally, after one really funny one Taylor told me, something about our aunt having to climb a ladder just to kiss him when they got married, the groom abruptly stopped laughing with a group of people, turned around, and glared at us.

"We were so scared and didn't know what to do. He was still staring at us, and we both got a horrible headache. He twitched his hand, and, I kid you not, some thick wires emerged from our metal chairs and bound us by our chest and legs!"

"_Metal wires came out of_ _your_ _chair?_" I asked, totally amazed.

"Yeah," Taylor said, "And then he moved his hand again and the wires released us and melted back into the chair. After tha---"

"Wait a minute! You said they _melted_ back into the chairs, right?" I asked, while thoughts zoomed through my head at a hundred miles an hour.

"Hold on a minute, Logan...and yeah, I did say that. Anyway, after the wires unwrapped themselves our headaches were gone, and instantly a voice interrupted the silence we felt by yelling into our minds!" Taylor said.

"What did it say?!" I urgently asked.

They both spoke in unison, as if rehearsed, "_''Don't disrespect me ever again.'_"

"So what's your power?" I asked.

"I can only move things with my mind. It's so boring!" Sarah said.

"Are you kidding? That's amazing! Um...would you want to, you know, go practice our powers somewhere with me sometime?" I asked.

"Right now's a good sometime. Do you want to go to the GATOR?" she asked.

"What's the GATOR?" I asked.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you're new."

"It's alright." I said. Sarah looked at me awkwardly.

"_Anyway_, it stands for the Generalized Armor and Training Operations Room. It has objects and certain things specified for each power."


End file.
